Eric Bailey's

It has almost been a week since we went away to the Family Camp that the church in Thunder Bay has every year. We made plans to make sure that we would be there to support our friends and family who are still there and trying to serve in whatever ways they find themselves. It was then during our big trip this summer that we found something special to add to the Family Camp schedule. Haaken asked to be baptized. He has talked about this before, but this is the first time that he actually went further than just discussing what the purpose of baptism is. So we talked to the minister in Thunder Bay and we set out some time over the weekend to have a baptism.

Our guest speaker was Dave McMillan and I enjoyed the sessions I attended. I helped out with the children's programming for one of the sessions. While the numbers were low, and one activity was canceled because of an emergency, the weekend as a whole was very enjoyable. The kids programs were planned rather than just babysitting or thrown together. The space between activities was restful and allowed us to film Haaken's movie "The Camp of Horror". Uncle Travis is now putting that together.

It was a good weekend and we are again missing our friends and family in Thunder Bay.

We attended the Krogsgaard reunion last week (17-19). It was fun and the highlight of any Krogsgaard reunion is the singing time. Besides the formal program, many would sit around and play guitar and sing. It is amazing the abilities that exist in that family. I think that they are hoarding the guitar playing abilities. Haaken, Liam and Kristian got to ride on a horse (each individually). We did a hayride and there were other things going on. I missed out on golfing because I had a nap. It was a fun time and we enjoyed meeting many of the new family members (a distant cousin of mine is now married into the Krogsgaard clan).

This weekend was the Bailey family reunion. It is the first of it's kind because it was organized by our generation, not our parents. Actually it was organized by Sheena Koops. As things came about, Sheena kept discovering more things to take care of for the weekend.

Some of the fun stories. On Friday night some of the cousins were camping in the Koops' backyard. The wind and rain were so hard that they actually collapsed one of the tents. A group of tired wet cousins made their way into the house leaving most of their stuff in the tent to gather later. On Saturday, I spent most of the day on the ping-pong table playing Ian, Sheena, Andrea, Michael and Victoria. I really enjoyed that, but I was not the one who stayed because I was winning games, in fact the only one who played a game against me was Michael. Ian and Sheena (I'm not sure about Andrea) would have beaten me embarrassingly if they decided to play. It was all kinds of fun to play against them all. The kids went to the beach a couple of time for swimming, and I'm sure that they enjoyed themselves. Andrea supervised most of these visits, of which I am very thankful.

I did not know it at the time, but the rash I was fighting on my arm was a result of a sensitivity to the sunlight. In simple terms the doctor told me yesterday when I finally went to see a doctor about this, that I am in fact allergic to the sun. I need to wear sunscreen, long-sleeve shirts and those kind of tricks to protect myself from that evil, shining, vengeful orb. At least now I have some super-super steroids to try and get rid of it.

Well, I though I should update this thing again. I have been thinking of posting pictures here somehow but since I am posting them on facebook and on my flickr account, everyone who wants to see pics of the trip can look them up. If you click on the ejb in the post before this one it will take you to my flickr account where I keep all my photos. I have been making facebook albums for those who use facebook.

Big preamble. The real news is that I have been driving school bus a lot this past week. I have been getting called in regularly to drive a charter here or there. I thought I had the long weekend off when I received a call Friday morning looking for a driver for Friday night and Sunday. I turned down the Sunday but agreed to be one of the two needed drivers for Friday. Then I got called back later asking if I could be on call for Monday instead of Sunday for this group. I said sure and then I learned the route on Friday when we delivered the first batch of people to the fire camp (these are summer firefighters). When I was called on Sunday about Monday's trip the firefighters changed the direction I would be traveling. Instead of being a 2-3 hour job I got a job that took almost the whole day, taking three groups (at once) to Fort Francis for their time off. It was a long trip there and a long trip back. I'm now home and wired from driving that much.

When I got home we ordered pizza and I went out and picked it up. Coming back into the house with the pizza, I twisted my good knee. I'm sure this will go away in a day or two, but if I bend the knee too much it hurts like crazy and it doesn't feel totally stable. Not a good way to end the day.

On a much happier note, I realized that I have a couple days to get everything together for the much planned and hyped family reunion. I'm not sure what the plan is there yet, from the looks of Andrew's facebook work, we do not really have a plan for the kitchen. Maybe that is why Sheena is talking about sushi, because people aren't signed up to cook (I know sushi is not just raw fish, but the joke works).

Tomorrow (since it is past midnight) I have to go up to Winnipeg to see if I can register to take a course for this term. Hopefully I don't have any trouble sleeping tonight so I can make that drive. I know that if I had to drive today it would be much tougher. Maybe now I can get some sleep since I have done all my online work.